Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-09-06
Roasted and Trampled to Death.

During the performance of "The Romany
Rye'' in the theatre at Exeter, London, last
night, the building was discovered to be on
FIRE The audience became panic stricken
and made frantic rush for the exits, in
sDito of the heroic efforts of the attaches to
reassure them and induce them to go out
quietly. The occupants Of the pit engaged
in an awful struggle for egress in the mar
row aisies. Men and women were deliber-
ately knocked down and trampled upon by
those behind them, and hundreds of persons
were almost entirely denuded in the terrible
fight for life Tine pit was finally cleared,
out large number of the occupants OF that
portion of the house were seriously injured
and presented horrible spectacle as they
reached the streets. The occupants of the
gallery did not fare so well. There was only
one very narrow exit from the upper tier,
involving the descent of rather long flight
of stairs, and here an almost indescrlbable
scene of terror and slaughter ensued. The
rush for the stairs was terrific, and in mo-
ment the entire passageway was blocked,
those persons who kept their feet being sup.
ported by solid mass of PROSTATE human
ity. The shrieks, groans, and curses of the
imprisoned and the trampled, the wounded
and the dying, were perfectly heartrending,
but there was no relief, and in moment
scores of men and women were either suffo.
Gated or killed by being trodden upon.
A fire escape was at last brought to one Of
the gallery windows, and through this me-
dium the pressure was relieved and great
many persons were lowered to the street.
as soon as the house had bsen cleared Of
the living, the work of removing the dead
was begun, and sixty bodies were taken out
by means of the fire escape. The fire starJ'
ed in the flies during the fourth act of the
play When the flames were discovered
drop scene was lowered to prevent the cur
rent of air from increasing the blaze. After
this was done the actors and stage hands
threw open door to make their escape
when the draft caused the flames to burst
through the drop scene and ignite the wood
work of the gallery. The flames overlook
the hindmost of the unfortunate people,
who were wedged in the corridor aud stair
way, and literally roasted them alive.
There was no escape for them, the fire being
at their backs and a compact, immovable
mass of human beings in front. The fire.
men reached the upper windows and took
out all of the people they could find, but
most of them were dead and many others
died soon after they were taken out. Ehe
surgeons in the hospitals revived a few per-
sons who were thought to be dead from suf.
location, but at 4 O'Clock in the morning
nearly 100 corpses lay in rows on the floor,
and these did not comprise the total number
of the dead, as great many bodies were
burned to ashes in the theater Some of
the dead were simply suffocated, and not at
all mutiated or burned. The occupants of
the dress circle escaped without injury, the
injured aud dead being confined to the pit
and the upper circles. The building was
destroyed. One hundred and thirty bodies
have been taken out of the theater thus far.
OF these one hundred were men and boys
and thirty women.